"I thought you said Christmas was going to be lowkey this year," Ethan mumbles to Spud, who shrugs helplessly as they look around the room. Since Zack is still recovering, they'd agreed to hold the annual Christmas get together at his and Dolph's apartment in Long Island, so the group of them are settled in around the living room, Heath and Wade sitting on chairs side by side, peering at something on Heath's phone. Ricardo and Alberto are examining a table covered in snacks and dessert foods. Zack is sitting on the couch, cruches leaning nearby, and Dolph is sitting next to him, massaging his shoulders comfortingly.
Nothing too out of the ordinary- until Spud's eyes rest on Mojo Rawley talking animatedly with... Santa? waving his hands excitedly and looking ten kinds of manic. "Who is that?" Spud wonders, brows furrowing as he tries to remember where he'd seen the man at before.
"No clue," Ethan says, disinterested. "Come on, Spud, let's get something to eat." He leads him over to join Alberto and Ricardo as Heath wanders over to Mojo and 'Santa', trying to pry away his tag partner.
"C'mon, man, your list can't be that long," Heath gripes as Mojo chatters on and on about wanting this kind of zubaz and that action figure and the other kind of memorabilia before he casts a glance over to the couch, his voice quieting.
"But most importantly, Santa, I want my tag partner to beat all odds and return real quick so we can become tag champs like we were meant to, alright?"
It's awkward, and it's painful for a number of reasons, Heath aching for an opportunity to make all of this right but also hurting deep down for Zack and how his own accomplishment had been pulled out from under him in the worst possible way, but eventually Rhyno taps his finger to the side of his nose and winks at Mojo. "I'll see what I can do," he promises before allowing Heath to drag him away, leaving an ecstatic looking Mojo behind.
"C'mon, man, I made sure Dolph'n'Zack got plenty of cheese'n'crackers for ya," Heath sighs, leading the way to the food table.
There's a stack of gifts under the tree but no one seems in any real hurry to get to them before the meal, which is served in the living room for Zack's sake. They turn on Freeform and laugh through Home Alone while eating ham, sweet and mashed potatoes, rolls, and corn, with tamales brought just for Alberto and Ricardo, who both fall speechless for a few minutes when they see them. Once they've all ate their fill and are this side of sleepy, Mojo, with his boundless energy, hops over to the tree and starts passing out gifts.
Zack blinks tiredly as Dolph sits patiently next to him, helping him with the tape when needed. "Thanks, bro," he murmurs, pulling aside the box lid and staring in. "Oh," he breathes softly. It's a Funko carefully crafted to look like him, with a box decorated to say ZACK RYDER. "This is great," he says, throwing his arms around Dolph awkwardly due to the angle they're sitting next to each other at. "It's even wearing a ring like mine," he whispers into Dolph's ear, the coolness of the band pressing against Dolph's neck underlining his words.
Dolph chuckles and kisses him. "You know my attention to detail," he teases Zack before lifting the funko up and peering into the box at it.
Heath rolls his eyes and laughs when his gift is a set of all of Wade's movies, even some that haven't been released yet, flipping through them before getting to the bottom of the box- which has a strange, hard edge. "Wait a minute," he mumbles, tugging at the item until it comes loose. As soon as he gets a good look at it, his jaw drops and his eyes grow mysteriously wet even as he laughs breathlessly. "Holy crap, Brit."
Wade chuckles and peers at it. "Yes? What?"
Heath waves the plaque around before kissing Wade hard, Rhyno grabbing at the item before he drops it and breaks it, reading the words. Best 'Being Able to Tolerate Filming a Role Alongside Miz' award goes to Heath Slater for his role in Marine 5: Battleground. Rhyno chuckles.
"I love you," Heath mumbles into his mouth as Wade hums appreciatively.
Spud is carefully eating the last of his ham, having waved the rest of them on to the gifts since his eating time had become quite slow thanks to Sutter destroying his front teeth with that errant kick a few months back, the paranoia lingering, when Santa plops down next to him, intensely eating his way through a plate full of cheese and crackers. Spud glances over at him, swallowing hard. "You know, Santa," he says, his voice somewhat high pitched, "you remind me of someone. I just can't place it."
A strange kind of smirk covers the man's face and he turns to look at Spud. "You don't say," he finally says, surprisingly dry for Santa. Spud hisses out a breath, realization dawning on him. "Merry Christmas, Spud," Rhyno says, clapping him on the back with enough force to send him nearly face first into his plate.
"Oh God," he mumbles, brushing his hand through his hair. "Rhyno?" His gaze flickers from Heath and back. "You've been doing well for yourself since leaving TNA, hm?" He tries not to sound bitter but, considering how his year has gone, perhaps having a friend like Rhyno in his corner would've helped ease the sting a bit.
Rhyno nods. "I see it hasn't been the best year for you." Spud swallows hard, closing his eyes against the memories of everything, everything, from the last year. "But I think 2017 will be better for you," he says simply, looking over at something. Spud follows his gaze to find he's staring pointedly at Ethan, who looks back calmly, nodding.
Spud flushes and stands up, leaving Rhyno behind to walk into Ethan's outstretched arms, accepting his hug. "I love you, sir," he mumbles.
"I love you too, Spud," Ethan sighs, kissing the top of his head. "Here."
It's not wrapped, the stuffed reindeer that Ethan presses into Spud's hands, but he hugs it tightly, falling in love with the gift immediately. "Thank you sir," he breathes into the creature's soft fur.
Alberto tilts his head, watching as the others exchange gifts before turning to Ricardo and lifting his hands, kissing his knuckles. "How is your knee feeling?" he wonders.
"Fine," Ricardo says. "The rehab specialists you found were perfect, I feel better than I have in a long time."
"That's great," Alberto answers with one of his all-encompassing grins. "I have a present for you."
Ricardo's brow furrows as he stares down at the oddly wrapped present, exhaling as he gets his fingernail underneath the wrapping paper and breaks the tape, forcing it open. He stares, bewildered, at the package of wasabi kitkats within. "Oh..." he murmurs, trying not to look too disgusted.
"Now this, this is awful looking, si?" Alberto admits, palming the gift and laughing at the look on Ricardo's face when he tilts his chin up. "But there is a method to my madness." Leaning in, he presses a kiss to Ricardo's lips before winking at him. "We are going to Japan, mi valiente. And we are going to get you a jacket from the steakhouse. You would like that, si?"
Ricardo's eyes widen and he throws his arms around Alberto, nodding enthusiastically. "Si! Gracias, El Patron," he gasps out.
Zack has finished poring all over his funko, in awe of how much detail had been put into it, before putting it down and grabbing a box from the side of the couch, handing it out to Dolph with a small, pained smile on his face. Dolph stares at him before grabbing the box and starting to tug it open. "What is this?" Dolph asks, smirk melting away when he sees what exactly is waiting for him. "Kid..."
"I, uh, well. Until my knee is healed, I'm not going to be on the road with you and when we are together, I might not be able to do everything I'd like to," Zack says, his eyes lowered onto the notebook pad. "So I want you to write down everything that we miss out on." He taps a finger against the cover of the pad, the letters IOU stenciled hard into the cardboard. "As soon as I'm 100% again, we'll go through it together and do everything."
"Everything huh?" Dolph asks, his eyebrows waggling in a way that makes Zack laugh in fond frustration.
"You're awful, bro."
"But you still love me," Dolph says, grin growing as Zack tilts into him and kisses him.
"Duh, bro."
Heath slinks up to Wade and wraps his arms around his neck, kissing him loudly on the cheek. "So."
"So," Wade sighs, turning and loosely wrapping his arms around Heath's waist, staring into his dark eyes.
"I've missed you," Heath mumbles, remembering all of those weeks he'd returned to an empty apartment while Wade filmed in Britian.
"I've missed you too."
"And Vancouver was beautiful," he continues, ignoring Wade's confused glance. "We've both been there for different movie roles, but I think it's time we experience it together." He presses a manila envelope into Wade's hands and watches as he pries it open, gaping at the travel itinerary awaiting him. "It's open ended, we can leave when we want and return when we want. Just gotta book the tickets. I wanna experience it all with you." He runs a finger down the list of activities and smiles up at Wade. "Sound good?"
"It... that sounds bloody fantastic," Wade mumbles, tugging him closer and kissing him.
"Merry Christmas, Brit," he whispers, teeth gleaming as he grins up at him.
Ricardo looks sheepish as he holds a box out to Alberto, ducking his head when the gift is opened. "This gift seems ... sorely lacking in comparison to what you've given me, but... I figured you could use it to remember me when you're out of the country or working on your restaurant," he attempts, staring down at the table until Alberto exclaims softly in Spanish. He peeks up to find him hugging the stuffed tuxedo cat, lips parting in an amused, but happy smile.
"It is perfect, mi valiente. I will treasure it." Cupping Ricardo's jaw, he kisses him softly and then boops Ricardo on the nose with the cat, laughing when his former ring announcer grins, reaching out to run his hand over the stuffed animal's soft fur.
"I'm so happy you like it, El Patron."
Spud inhales sharply before moving over to Ethan's side, hands holding a box pressed against his spine until his significant other looks away from the glass of whiskey he's holding. "Sir," he whispers. "Here, I ... have your gift." Ethan blinks, then beams, before grabbing the box and tearing into it with gusto.
"Bluebell bath oil?" he murmurs, reading the label of the delicate glass jar in his hand.
Spud nods, taking the bottle gently from him and pulling the lid off. "Yessir, smell..." He holds the glass under Ethan's nose and waits until a look of blissful awe crosses his face. "Nice, yeah?" He smiles. "Can only find this stuff in England, and I figured you'd enjoy relaxing in it, so... It's almost enough to send you to sleep while bathing in it."
Ethan leans in and breathes it in again before looking at Spud. "I think I know what we're doing as soon as we leave here."
Spud laughs through his blush and nods, putting the lid back on and carefully tucking the bottle away before Ethan gets any ideas. "C'mon, sir," he says, gripping Ethan's hand and dragging him over to the couch.
Zack's still recovering, long hours of rehabbing and walking everywhere on these damnable crutches wearing on him, and it shows as he sprawls out on the couch, giving up on all pretenses of feeling normal, his head lulling in Dolph's lap as he strokes his hair, Zack's eyes fluttering.
"Is he asleep?" Heath asks, carefully settling at the foot of the couch, working not to jostle Zack's bad knee.
"No," Zack mumbles, despite his eyes being closed and his voice slurring.
"Almost," Dolph whispers.
"No."
"Yes." Dolph plants a kiss on Zack's forehead and smiles down at him. "Go to sleep, we're not going anywhere."
"Don't wanna." But Dolph's fingers are warm in his hair and Heath's working over the laces of his shoes, pulling them off of his feet to make him more comfortable, and he groans. "Y'both suck..."
"When you wake back up, we can have some fun with the mistletoe," Dolph promises, laughing when Zack breathes out softly, his eyebrows lifting. This is clearly the only response he can achieve as he drifts deeper into sleep, his fingers closing around Dolph's shirt. "Rest well, kid."
"He'll feel better after some sleep," Heath offers with a vague nod at Dolph, who nods back.
"Yes, he will. Hey, Rhyno, get me the remote, huh?" After this request is obliged, he turns the volume down and flicks through the channels, looking for something good to watch while he listens to Zack's soft breathing.
Mojo approaches at some point and Dolph tenses up, preparing to bark at him to not wake Zack up, when he quietly hands over a mistletoe and shuffles off as quickly as he'd arrived, leaving Dolph uncertain and confused. It's beneficial, however, because when Zack starts to stir, Dolph holds it up just in time that it's the first thing he sees when he blinks his eyes open, Dolph's kiss being what guides him into the waking world before even the lingering, pulsing kind of pain around the stitches holding his reconstructed kneecap together reintroduces itself to his consciousness, giving him a brief second of normalcy and comfort before a full sense of reality returns to him. "Merry Christmas, kid," he whispers against Zack's lips.